UNIVERSITY OF DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE CROSS-SECTION

Issue No. 200 June 1, 1969

¶ Camp Hill was recommended by the Joint Select and having a suitable environment for working staff. Committee on the New and Permanent Parliament They also admired the restrained use of the owner's House as the site for the new Parliament House and name on the building. It represents the first use in has been accepted by Parliament. Another supplemen- of Aus-Ten 50 steel on the external struc- tary recommendation was that the summit of Capitol tural frame. The oxidation of this material as it Hill be reserved for "an architectural shaft or other matures creates a warm brown "which will blend in feature of a symbolic nature which would not compete with the semi-rural surroundings of the site". It has by reason of its mass, its form or its significance with a forceful and energetic form and proportioning on the Parliament building but, if possible, complement Miesian principles. Builder: A. V. Jennings Industries and enhance the building's appearance". A flagpole? (Aust.) Ltd. Structural Engineer: Irwin Johnston & A giant flagpole was recommended long ago by Sir Partners Pty. Ltd. Mechanical & Electrical Engineers: William Holford. The remaining question is what build- W. E. Bassett & Partners. Quantity Surveyor: Rider, ing appearance should the architectural shaft enhance? Hunt & Partners.

Photo:

Photo: David Moore C-S celebrates its 200th edition by publishing the R.A.I.A. Victorian Chapter 1969 cited finalists for the Bronze Medal award. At the time of writing the Bronze Medal winner and other citation winners (architects and builders) were not available for publication. Some Photo: Mark Strizic of these prize buildings have already been reviewed The Fletcher house by architects Romberg and Boyd in this magazine. The National Gallery designed by was placed first in the Domestic category. Blank brick Sir (see C-S Issue No. 191, Sept. '68) was walls are placed to a busy street and western sun. first in the General category, the Awards Committee The exposed steel roofed skillions differentiate in commenting that this is the only monumental building external appearance the three blocks of separated established in Melbourne since the Shrine of Remem- functions: living/dining wing, bedroom wing and guest brance was built after a design competition in the wing. Each wing has its own courtyard and they are 1920's. Another favourable point mentioned was that linked by glazed galleries to a treble carport. The the project management control enabled it to be interest in the design here is in its picturesqueness. completed on schedule within the designated cost Owner/builder: Mr. Norman Fletcher. structure. Illustrated is the Bamboo Garden, one of The City of Malvern Harold Holt Memorial Pool (see three internal courts. The two major contracting firms C-S Issue No. 199, May '69) is first in the Environmental were A. V. Jennings Industries (Aust.) Ltd. and John category. The Awards Committee praised the imagina- Holland (Constructions) Pty. Ltd. The Industrial cate- tively laid out exterior pools on a confined site and the gory was won by architects Eggleston Macdonald and "dramatic enclosure" of the two indoor pools which Secomb for their B.H.P. Melbourne Research Labora- has a finely divided glass wall which contrasts with tories in the suburb of Clayton. Illustrated is this the chunky shapes and forms of its service and cir- independent first stage of a larger development com- culation structures illustrated: Architects: Kevin plex. The Awards Committee considered it well con- Borland and Daryl Jackson. Builder: A. R. P. Crow & ceived and well executed, lacking industrial faults Sons Pty. Ltd. The illustration of the Collins St. facade shows the merits of its proportions. The greatest excitement for the layman visitor is to observe and hear the hub-bub and shouting from the cantilevered visitors' gallery overlooking the trading floor activities and the ever- changing wall pattern of chalked figures. Structural Engineer: John Connell & Associates. Principal Con- tractor: Hansen and Yuncken Pty. Ltd. Electrical and Mechanical: Buchan, Laird and Buchan Pty. Ltd. Quantity Surveyor: Wolferstan Trower and Partners.

Photo: Ian McKenzie

In the Retail category the Awards Committee was im- pressed by the Southland Shopping Centre, Chelten- ham, as a building type peculiar to the 20th century as it must cater for motorised traffic rather than for the shopper arriving and leaving on foot or by estab- lished railway lines and other forms of 19th century orientated public transport. It is the car-user shopper that has created the need for retailing with facilities at this scale outside the old commercial centre, or did the retailer simply see the sprawl, the shift of population to outer suburban living, a static non-growth of public transport and a high rate of individual car ownership? The retailer then supplied this kind of retail complex and by all means at his disposal per- suaded the car-shopper to use it? The public response has marked such building types as a great success. Conditions like this have put into the lap of architects engaged to design a great complexity of needs and persuasions a brief to design for popular taste. In addition the necessary vast acreage of car-parking asphalt and kerbing and signs and the air-conditioned collection of building at the centre of the site makes the designer's task to create a good environment very difficult. The design of this centre by architects Tomp- kins, Shaw and Evans establishes a high standard. The central generally reinforced concrete structure is spread low over three levels with 150,000 sq. ft. coping Photo: John Squire with a 3-level department store, a junior department Stock Exchange House in Collins Street, Melbourne, store, supermarket, 59 other shops, 9 professional was first in the Urban category. Designed by architects suites, an auditorium and roof garden. Centred on 25i Buchan, Laird & Buchan Pty. Ltd. it is an indication acres the building is fully enclosed and fully air- that the inheritors of the International Style amongst conditioned. The long low terraced tiers are as viable Melbourne's city office block architects are now con- as F.L.W.'s organic forms and setting in a given cerned with an outer skin of glazed precast concrete topography. The pedestrian's traffic and his car and panels on external walls, having abandoned the glass the building are connected on two levels and isolated curtain wall. The complex functions of the A.N.Z. Bank from a service truckway. Some ceramic murals Head Office and banking chambers and the Stock and sculpture entertain the potential purchaser Exchange of Melbourne are embraced in two clear along the way. Southland was first in the Retail cate- cut towers, a 26-storey steel framed bank offices block gory. Structural Engineers: J. L. & E. M. Daly. Civil to Collins St. and a 9-storey low rise post-tensioned Engineers (site works): L. T. Frazer & Associates. Land- reinforced concrete block Stock Exchange with a scape: R. Skerrit. Electrical and Mechanical: Crooks, 9,000 square ft. columnless trading floor three stories Michell, Peacock and Stewart. Quantity Surveyor: high. This is achieved by walled-in concrete arches Wolferstan, Trower and Partners. Builder: Lewis Con- springing from the trading floor level terminating at structions Co. Pty. Ltd. As the awards range over a roof level and suspending from these the five floors number of categories so do these buildings range over over the trading area. Both tower blocks are clad a number of sometimes very different architectural externally with pre-cast reconstructed Harcourt granite principles, but with one thing in common — excellent curtain wall panels. Due to a fall across a long narrow quality. site the main public access ways in the lower floors 11 The 19-storey A.M.P. building in Adelaide (C-S Issue are split to street frontages and connected by escala- No. 193, Nov. 1968) won its contractors Hansen Yuncken tors. Bronze-green carpet and wall facings of blue-grey (S.A.) Pty. Ltd. an award for the most outstanding Italian marble with russet lines meandering through constructional project in Australia in the past 10 years. it and some natural timber finishes to a circular bank- The award was sponsored by the International Federa- ing chamber give warmth to the cool comfort and pre- tion of Asian and Western Pacific Contractors' Associa- cisely formed and detailed air-conditioned interiors. tions who recently held a convention in Adelaide. The population of reached 117,130 on March 31st, not including 1,300 diplomats and their families. The Canberra growth is almost 1,000 people per month and is mainly concentrating in the two satellite districts of Woden and Belconnen. ¶ The "Financial Review" 17.4.69 has optimistically estimated Australia's population at 23 million by the year 2000, and used this figure as a basis for discussing N.S.W. planning and industrial development of the future. This figure takes no account of possible (likely?) further drastic increases due to spillage from the rest of the world's estimated 6,000 million. The discussion centres around the theme of employment opportunities and the establishment of industries to provide them. There is no real cause for optimism here — by the year 2000 the problem will be not how to keep people employed but rather how to feed a largely unemploy- able population and how to stop them dying from the sheer boredom of too much leisure, unless of course we are prepared to channel the national workforce into producing sufficient food to feed the starving millions who do not live in the Lucky Country. ¶ Comalco for the annual Comalco Award in sculpture invited six Australian sculptors: Hinder, Walker, Robertson-Swann, Broughton, Clutterbuck and Flugle- man to submit models for the town centre of Woden, Canberra, the subject being: a "Sculpture designed for a town centre to symbolise the transformation of natural Australian countryside into highly developed urban living". Prize-winners will be announced in Sep- tember.

Photo: David Moore In C-S Issue No. 180, Oct. 1967, a photo of a model of 10 town houses designed by Clarke, Gazzard and Partners appeared. Some completed buildings look like models of themselves but these have been worked out well "in the flesh" in brick fabric and structural concrete, deep concrete balustrades and windows with thin metal frames. The site is on the edge of a steep cliff and the lower units are cantilevered out over the cliff on pre- cast concrete beams. Two cars per town-house have been accommodated beneath a raised upper 2-storey level of units. Access to the lower units is through a hard finished urban precinct space seen in the illu- stration. This covered parking area beneath the resi- dences frees the frontage for garden areas, a con- Photo: Richard Edwin Stringer siderable achievement compared to the concrete and Next year is the second centenary of James Cook's kerbing and rows of cars in front of and surrounding "discovery" of Australia. The Cooktown area in Queens- most 2 or 3 storey unit complexes. The units are 16 land is a touch-point of Cook's discovering along the or 20 squares, 3-bedroom, 22 bathroom and sell at eastern coast. The convent of this gold boom town $30,000 and $35,000. Structural Engineer: Thomas Jume- which developed at this historic site has been offered kis. Mechanical and Electrical Engineers: Norman and by the R.C. Bishop of North Queensland to the Queens- Addicoat. land National Trust on condition that funds can be If Hamersley Iron Pty. Ltd. will outlay an estimated raised for repairs and that a small museum be incor- $3.5 million for the establishment of a new N.W. porated. Built in 1886 the convent was the only place town called Karratha in W.A., near the port of Dampier. of secondary education in the far north and was open Envisaged is an ultimate population of 25,000 plus. to all denominations. The illustration indicates that ¶ The design stage for a new 10-storey Marine the building is worthy of restoration and it is to be Board building was announced to the press by the hoped that funds can be raised. The pity is that the Master Warden, and contract documents for their de- various State National Trusts have not at their dis- sign are now being prepared by architects Philp, posal ready-made funds for preservation of similar Lighton, Floyd and Beattie. fine old buildings of all period styles in all towns. ¶ The Minister for Local Government has announced This convent is the best surviving example of gold the approval of a new regional planning authority for boom architecture in Cooktown. the Geelong () area. ¶ The Victorian State Electricity Commission intends to demolish the town of Yallourn between 1980 and ¶ A site opposite the Country Party Headquarters in 2000 and mine brown coal beneath the city site. National Circuit, Canberra, has been allotted to the ¶ The firm of Luna Park (Holdings) Ltd. have submitted Australian Institution of Engineers for a national head- plans to the N.S.W. Government for a $50 million re- quarters. Architects: Bunning and Madden of Sydney. development of Sydney's Luna Park area. Architect: ¶ Building activity in W.A. increased by more than a Harry Seidler. third during '68. New buildings started were valued ¶ The NCDC has had 12' removed from the top of the at $264 million, 36% greater than for '67. 50' high Canberra Hospital chimney in order to improve ¶ Construction will begin shortly on the Woden Valley the overall aesthetics of the building. Too many tourists Hospital in Canberra. The first stage is scheduled to had enquired whether the hospital was the Canberra open in 1973, the second in 1976. A hospital planning Power Station! unit was established within the A.C.T. Health Services ¶ To mark the bicentenary next year of Captain Cook's Branch to assist the architects with research material. discovery of Australia's east coast a water jet is to Architects: Stephenson & Turner. Estimated cost: be set in Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra. $17 million. A Fresh Approach to Care of the Aged Built at cost of around three quarters of a million All rooms are centrally heated from an oil fired furnace dollars, the George Kraus Memorial Wing in the Monte- and are fully fly-screened. fiore Homes for the Aged in Melbourne has success- The exterior of the building is in cinnamon face brick fully provided accommodation for 101 old people relieved by white tiled feature projections. These without the usual depressing institutional atmosphere. projections are both decorative and functional — they The people at Montefiore say they come there to live. house the radiant heat panels for the central heating. Each of the 101 bedrooms are almost as individualistic Windows are grey glass to reduce glare. as the people who live in them. Each has its own According to Mr. Berman, Architect for the project, special decor. Whilst furniture is standardised such this fresh approach to the care of our aged has been things as furnishings fabrics, drapes, blinds, bed- achieved at little or no extra expense. The total con- spreads and floors are all different. Each of the four cept has been to combine the maximum in comfort floors has its own lounge, reading room, T.V. room and and accommodation without sacrificing individuality kitchenette. The kitchenette is provided so that resi- and at a realistic cost. The success of the project has dents can prepare refreshments for their guests. been gratifyingly endorsed by the many overseas visitors who have inspected the home. Toilet and washing facilities are provided in each room Montina Sheet Vinyl Corlon (2,000 square yards) by and bathing facilities in a separate block on each floor. Armstrong-Nylex was chosen as the floor covering in The reason for this is so that these activities can be the individual rooms. The wide choice of colours supervised and so help prevent accidents so prevalent coupled with its practical and functional features made amongst old people whilst bathing. There is a nurse this ideal flooring. The major factors governing its call-button alongside the bed in each room for emer- choice were individuality in colours and low mainte- gency use. Two lifts service the four floors and hand- nance cost — a claim that has been amply justified rails are provided in all corridors to assist residents. after twelve months use. Architect: Theodore Berman Builder: L. U. Simon Pty. Ltd. Mechanical Engineers: Lincolne, Demaine & Scott Structural Consultants: W. J. & W. L. Meinhardt Quantity Surveyors: Weisberg and Associates Flooring Contractor: Walter F. Studd of Fashion Floors Pty. Ltd.

C)rnst rong-Ny[ex SALES OFFICES ADELAIDE: 290-292 Grange Road, Flinders Park, PERTH: Cnr. Scarborough Beach & Frobisher Roads, South Australia 5025. Telephone: 57 7371. Osborne Park, Western Australia 6017. BRISBANE: 35 Charlotte Street, Brisbane, Queensland 4000. Telephone: 24 1056. Telephone: 2 2984. SYDNEY: 717 Canterbury Road, Belmore, MELBOURNE: 7 Radford Road, Reservoir, Victoria 3073. New South Wales 2192. Telephone: 750 0411. Telephone: 46 4861.

Library Digitised Collections

Title: Cross-Section [1969]

Date: 1969

Persistent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/24063

File Description: Cross-Section, Jun 1969 (no. 200)